In accordance with drying apparatus generally articles to be dried are accommodated inside of the vessel and heating and drying are applied to the inside of the vessel, and a temperature inside of the vessel is maintained at a temperature higher than a boiling point of water, the water content in the vessel is evaporated and the steam flows out through the space formed between the opening of the vessel and the cover provided on the upper end of the vessel, thereby drying the article. However, the pipettes are considered not to be heated to high temperature since they are precision gauges, and in case of maintaining the vessel at a temperature allowing the pipettes to be dried such as at a temperature from about 50.degree. C. to about 80.degree. C., the air in the tank comes to contain saturated steam at the drying temperature, which steam is cooled when the air containing the steam in the vessel contacts the cover, and a major portion of the steam in the air is settled and condensed to be dropped in the vessel so that the drying of the article by the foregoing means requires extremely long hours. As a method of resolving the problem, the pressure in the tank is reduced, and the drying is effected to low temperature, but an installation such as a pressure reduction pump is required, and at the same time, the apparatus becomes complicated, thereby easily raising the cost of the apparatus.
Also, on the other hand, a system of drying the pipettes by flowing dried hot air is well known but this system tends to cause adverse results of not only consuming a large volume of heat but also blowing dusts in the atmosphere to the pipettes and tends to require expenses together with the removal of the dusts from the air.
Also, the pipettes used in the field of chemical analysis or the like are small glass tubes whose ends are of small diameters and have complicated shapes. For this reason, the washing and drying after the involve with various problems.
The foregoing washing and drying are performed in the following manner. In the first place, the pipettes are dipped for washing in acidic washing solutions such as chromic acid mixed solution or in detergent solutions, or the pipettes are dipped in the detergent solutions, and supersonic waves are applied to the detergent solutions to effect the supersonic washing whereby the substances adhered on the pipettes are removed by dispersing them in the washing solution. Next, the washing with the city water is applied to the pipettes a plurality of times, and the chromic acid mixed solution or the detergent solution adhered to the pipettes is removed, and moreover, if necessary, the rinsing with the pure water is applied to the pipettes.
The foregoing rinsing, in many cases, is performed normally in the automatic rinsing device a of siphon type, and the final rinsing with the pure water is performed manually. The siphon device for performing this process automatically is found in the commercially available devices.
As described in the foregoing, the washed pipettes are dried by the drying treatment or the like in the proper drying unit.
The foregoing treatment comprises charging of the used pipettes into the washing solution, removal of the washed pipettes from the washing tank, charging of the pipettes taken out from the washing tank to the siphon type automatic rinsing device to the rack for drying or the drying unit after rinsing manually with the pure water. The washing of the pipettes is usually performed by handling a large number of pipettes so that each of the foregoing operations requires considerable processes and times. Although the labor required for each of the operations is not excessive, it is necessary to shift the pipettes to the next steps speedily upon completion of the processes and on account of the requirements, the monitoring of the processes is required, and if the monitoring is ignored, are wasted long hours and natural resources.
Furthermore, whether drying the pipettes or the like with the drying apparatus or in case of drying with the drying apparatus with heat from below the vessel which contains the pipettes in its inside, there are many problems remained to be solved.